The present invention is in the field of copy to layout and photograph to layout scalers wherein dimensional reductions and enlargements, and desired format changes, are achieved for photographs, printed material, and the like. More particularly, this invention relates to devices for electronically processing desired operator entries on a keyboard and sensed dimensional measurements of a copy or layout and providing a digital display of the desired change.
In the printing industry, it is often required to enlarge, reduce, or change the format of a photograph or fit copy to printed material to enable printing in a desired layout form. This requires time consuming and demanding computations, particularly when a typed copy is to be reduced to printed column format. Aids for providing a proportional reduction or enlargement are available in the art and employ movable members which are placed over the copy or layout to geometrically determine the length and width dimensions before and after the reduction or enlargement. Such devices are limited in their usefulness to indicate only the new dimensions and do not provide the capability of indicating dimensions in a different format having different print, spacing, leading, and the like.